Directory

Stephen Neely

Stephen Neely, Carnegie Mellon Artist Lecturer in Dalcroze Eurhythmics, Dalcroze License, and past President of the Dalcroze Society of America, is a conductor, teacher, singer, and clinician. He is the Director of the Carnegie Mellon Marta Sanchez Dalcroze Training Center and Director of the Pre-College programs at Carnegie Mellon School of Music. He teaches Dalcroze Eurhythmics, Dalcroze Pedagogy, and Vocal Methods for the Carnegie Mellon School of Music and he teaches Dalcroze Eurhythmics and directs the Opera Workshop at Pittsburgh's High School for the Creative and Performing Arts. Mr. Neely served as Chorusmaster for Opera Theater of Pittsburgh from 1999–2010, was featured as the Hangman in Leonardo Balada’s early operas Hangman, Hangman and the world premiere of The Town of Greed for the Naxos label and he was a featured speaker at TEDxCMU 2012. He enjoys traveling to present hands-on workshops and clinics in the US and around the globe focusing on the overlaps between music, the body, esthetics, performance, and experience.

Stephen Neely is currently a candidate for the PhD in Experience Design at the Carnegie Mellon School of Design.

"My research focuses on the physical nature of experience—that is, the ways in which our physical presence/bodies are necessary components of any experience. I am interested in ‘what is heavy’, ‘shifts of weight’, ‘the knowing body’, and the ways that we might reveal, study, and design at the level of the root physical realities of experience.”

Djordje Nesic

Djordje Stevan Nesic’s pianism has been described as artful, assertive, sensitive and quietly virtuosic, and his career highlighted by recital, concerto, chamber, and collaborative performances, both in the US and his hometown of Belgrade, Serbia. Engagements in 2016 include a recital for the George London Foundation, and performing as the official accompanist for the Joyce DiDonato Carnegie Hall masterclasses. Recent activity includes a recital with mezzo Isabel Leonard for the Lincoln Center Great Performers Circle, teaching residency in Zagreb, Croatia, a gala concert for the 84th anniversary of Belgrade’s Kolarac Hall, recitals for the Metropolitan Opera Guild, appearances at Opera Saratoga, Asolo Theater in Sarasota, and the Phoenicia Festival of the Voice, as well the Opera America Conference in San Francisco, a teaching residency at the historic Kolarac Hall in Belgrade, performances at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, as well as a live performance on A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor. Djordje recorded seven newly commissioned art songs for Opera America Songbook CD, performed at Carnegie’s Weill and Zankel halls, Ravinia Festival’s Rising Star Series, and participated in the Midwest-Emmy winning PBS broadcast of “This Little Light of Mine”, also issued on DVD. Other venues include Lincoln Center, the United Nations General Assembly Hall, the Mann Performing Arts Center in Philadelphia, and FUJI TV in Japan. He has been a fellow and a guest performer at Opera Saratoga, the Aspen Music Festival, the Tanglewood Festival, Glimmerglass Opera, Houston Grand Opera, the Greenwich Music Festival, and the Phoenicia Voice Festival.

Djordje Stevan Nesic, is a roster member of the Arts Global Artistic.

Rodrigo Ojeda

Ojeda began his piano studies at the age of ten. He completed his Bachelor´s Degree in piano performance at the IUDEM (Institute of Musical Studies) in 1997 under Arnaldo Pizzolante. In 1999 he went on to complete his graduate studies at Carnegie Mellon University with Enrique Graf where he also remained to complete his Artist Diploma certificate.

Mr. Ojeda has performed on master classes with such notable pianists as Kasimierz Giesrod (former rector of the Frederic Chopin Academy in Warsaw ), Marek Joblonsky, Georgy Sandor, Marta Gulyas, and Earl Wild. His solo recitals include performances throughout Venezuela, Ecuador and most recently in the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina. He has performed concerti from an expansive repertoire of Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Gershwin, Grieg, Schumann, Mozart, Liszt (Totentanz), Cesar Frank and Prokofiev.

A versatile pianist, Mr. Ojeda has performed numerous chamber works from classical and contemporary string, brass and woodwind repertoire. He has been a member of the Carnegie Mellon Contemporary Ensemble under the direction of Efrain Amaya and Educardo Alonso Crespo.

Mr. Ojeda´s most recent live television and radio broadcasts include Prokofiev´s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Orquesta Municipal, Caracas, Venezuela. This summer Mr. Ojeda will be soloist once again with the Orquesta Municipal, playing the Brahms´ 2nd Piano Concerto as well as performing in chamber and solo recitals throughout Mexico, Venezuela and Spain.

Currently Mr. Ojeda is an Artist Lecturer in Piano in the School of Music at Carnegie Mellon University as well as a piano faculty member in its Music Preparatory School. His wife, Giuseppina, and son, Sebastian, reside with him in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Benjamin Opie

Ben Opie teaches music technology at both Carnegie Mellon and CAPA High School. He is also the founder and coach of CAPA Antithesis, the school's groundbreaking avant-garde ensemble.

Outside of academic life, Ben is highly active as a composer and arranger, and performer on reeds and electronics. He currently performs with Thoth Trio (intense acoustic jazz), OPEK (reduced size big band), Dust and Feathers (improvisation with text), and the Syrinx Ensemble (improvisation with live birds). Ben has recordings available by Thoth Trio, Water Shed 5tet, Coal Train, among numerous others.

In 1996, he received the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust Creative Achievement Award for his work as a composer and saxophonist. Ben has received composition commissions from the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, First Night Pittsburgh, and the Woodland Hills School District.

Ben did undergraduate studies at Carnegie Mellon and Duquesne University, where he graduated cum laude with a degree in music education.

Dr. Natalie Ozeas

Natalie Ozeas holds a B.F.A. in Music Education, a B.F.A. in
Applied Music (clarinet), an elementary certificate in Dalcroze Eurhythmics, an
M.F.A in Music Education, all from Carnegie Mellon, and an Ed.D. in Humanities
from the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Ozeas taught preschool through
high school for over 20 years. Before coming to Carnegie Mellon, she was
Professor of Music and conductor of the choir at California University of
Pennsylvania. Dr. Ozeas is currently a Professor in the School of Music and
Director of Graduate Studies. She appears frequently as an adjudicator and
guest conductor for junior and senior high school choral festivals, and has
directed workshops in Dalcroze Eurhythmics throughout the United States in
Europe and in Asia. She is a past President of the Dalcroze Society of
America, past President of the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association, past
President of the Music Educators Association, Eastern Division and immediate
past National Chair of the Urban Music Leadership Conference. She chaired the
development of a Pennsylvania Arts Curriculum. As a member of the National
Executive Board of MENC, she acted as liaison to the National Research Society
and served on its editorial board. For the past fourteen years, Dr. Ozeas has directed
the Urban Music Education Project with the Pittsburgh and Wilkinsburg School
Districts. Dr. Ozeas was inducted into the PMEA Hall of Fame in 2011.

Dimitri Papadimitriou

Pianist Dimitri Papadimitriou has distinguished himself as an artist of refined musicianship and personal verve. A passionate avid of chamber music, Dimitri has recently collaborated with many principal musicians from major European and U.S.orchestras, including Noah Bendix-Balgley, concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic, and Andrés Cárdenes, former concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. A musician of versatile skills, he has lately developed an interest in conducting that led him to a successful debut on the podium with Chausson’s Symphony in B-flat major and Shostakovich’s Ninth Symphony at the Pierre Monteux Festival and School. Currently a faculty member at the Carnegie Mellon University School of Music in Pittsburgh, he also serves as the Artistic Director of the ‘Carnegie Mellon Chamber Series’, a newly found series that brings together members of the CMU faculty and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Before moving to the U.S., Dimitri was residing in Ireland enjoying a flourishing career with engagements in some of the country’s most prestigious venues and festivals, while completing his Doctorate in Music Performance. A native of Greece, Dimitri at age sixteen won first prize at the international chamber music competition ‘Classical Heritage’ of Moscow, made his debut with the Greek Radio Symphony Orchestra with Rachmaninov’s ‘Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini’ and following an outstanding success, he was invited to perform Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto for a national broadcast. A graduate of Indiana University and the Royal Irish Academy of Music, he has participated in a plethora of festivals throughout Europe and the U.S.

David Premo

Cellist David Premo joined the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in 1992, was promoted to Fourth Chair, a non-rotating position in 1994, and subsequent to a national audition in 1999, was offered the position of Assistant Principal. Following another round of national auditions, Mr. Premo was awarded the position of Associate Principal in 2001. Additionally, Mr. Premo has been Artist-Lecturer at Carnegie Mellon University since 1994, providing private cello instruction, coaching chamber music groups and teaching an orchestra repertoire class.

Mr. Premo came to Pittsburgh from Washington D.C., where he served as Associate Principal of the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra from 1980 until 1991. During his tenure in Washington, Mr. Premo performed chamber music at the Phillips Collection, the Corcorcan Gallery and the Library of Congress, and served on numerous occasions as principal cellist with the American Chamber Orchestra, the National Gallery Orchestra and the Wolf Trap Festival Orchestra, among others. Mr. Premo performed as a member of the National Symphony Orchestra, both at the Kennedy Center and on several United States and European tours.

Since coming to Pittsburgh, Mr. Premo has become a frequently requestedchamber musician and soloist, appearing on Shadyside and Rodef Shalom chamber music series and, in 1993, performing the Elgar Cello Concerto with the Edgewood Symphony. In 1995 Mr. Premo and Christopher Wu (violinist with the PSO and winner of the 1994 Passamaneck Award) won the Pittsburgh ConcertSociety Competition. In 1996 Mr. Premo won the prestigious Passamaneck Award entitling him to a solo recital which he gave in Pittsburgh's Carnegie Hall in April 1997.

David Premo studied 'cello in his native Chicago with Margaret Evans of the Chicago Symphony, later with Robert Newkirk at Catholic University, and most recently with Janos Starker at Indiana University. His 'cello was made in approximately 1860 by Jean Baptiste Vuillaume.

Dr. Richard Randall

Richard Randall is the Cooper-Siegel Associate Professor of Music Theory at the Carnegie Mellon University School of Music. Randall holds a faculty appointment at the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition and is a researcher at CMU's Scientific Imaging and Brain Research Center. He received his PhD in Music Theory in 2006 from the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester.

Randall's research lies at the intersection of music theory, cognitive psychology, and media and cultural studies. His work employs a wide range of investigative methods in an attempt to better understand what music is and why it is important. He directs the Music Cognition Lab and co-directs the Listening Spaces Project.

His lab investigates the neuroscientific basis of music perception and cognition. Focusing on how musicality is perceptual property that auditory objects, his lab uses fMRI to identify neural correlates of how musicality is modulated by changes in low-level acoustic organizational features.

Listening Spaces frames music as an essential human activity and seeks to understand the overwhelming impact technology has had on our collective and personal musical interactions. Their forthcoming book, 21st Century Perspectives on Music, Technology, and Culture, critiques current digital-music practices, how musical activities are commodified, and their social meaning. Listening Spaces also partners with local musicians, community organizers, and Pittsburgh schools to create the Pittonkatonk May-Day Music Festival and Workshop, which seeks to transcend traditional political economies of musician and audience and create socially engaged and sustainable musical events supported by vested community collaborators.

Zach Reeder

Zach Reeder holds a Master of Music degree from Carnegie Mellon University in classical guitar performance. He currently serves as the Assistant Director of Music Admission and Student Services for the School of Music and teaches guitar through the extension division and preparatory school programs. Zach is also an active performing and composing artist in Pittsburgh and the surrounding area.

Michael Rusinek

Michael Rusinek joined the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in the fall of 1998 and holds the Mr. and Mrs. Aaron Silberman Principal Clarinet chair. Born in Toronto, his early studies were with Avrahm Galper at the Royal Conservatory of Music. He attended the Curtis Institute, and was appointed by Mstislav Rostropovich to the post of Assistant Principal Clarinet with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington D.C.. Rusinek has performed as a soloist with many orchestras, and as a recitalist he has been heard across Canada on CBC Radio and in live concerts. He has performed throughout the United States and Israel. In 1985 he was awarded the grand prize in the International Clarinet Society competition and was a prize-winner in the Belgrade International Clarinet competition. In 1989 Rusinek represented Canada at the International Clarinet Festival in France. He has participated in many music festivals in the United States and Canada, including Musicians from Marlboro, and was featured on Sony records celebrating Marlboro's 50th anniversary. In the summer of 2000 Rusinek performed as Principal Clarinet in the Super World Orchestra, alongside musicians from around the world. He is working on Clarinetscape, an educational Web site for clarinetists.

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